It's not as if I don't appreciate the great job that Mike Avlies has done filling in for Jacoby Ellsbury at the top of the Red Sox order.

Tuesday Aviles went 4 for 5 with a home run and two doubles. On the season he's hitting .333 with three home runs, 10 runs batted in and an OPS of .932. At the plate, as The Republican's Ron Chimelis notes, he's been everything one could have hoped, and then some.

It's a different story in the field. It's not as if Aviles is an error machine -- he makes most of the routine plays that a shortstop is expected to make. But he doesn't make some of those that one might reasonably expect, and he's slow to turn double plays.

The shortstop position is one that places a true premium on fielding. For years teams would routinely sacrifice offensive prowess in exchange for defensive skill.

Some teams still do. Players like Brendan Ryan in Seattle and Kansas City's Alcides Escobar aren't starters because of their power potential. They're in the lineups because of their glove work.

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It's probably not a coincidence that the rumor of a spat in Spring Training between Aviles and Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine was centered around a fielding drill.

For now, with Jacobly Ellsbury and Carl Crawford on the disabled list, Aviles' bat is far too important to the Red Sox to allow his defensive deficiencies to impact his status as the team's starting shortstop.

Down the road that could change. Not turning double plays or not nailing close plays at first has a bad way of coming back to haunt teams. It adds pressure to pitchers and this is a Red Sox pitching staff that needs all the help they can get.